I only lost 5 lbs in the last month, because I’ve been enjoying life a little too much on this diet. I hit that 250 lb mark and decided to have a little fun because that was my first goal, and I hit it much, much sooner than I ever hoped I would.

I did not go off the deep end, but the fat content of the food I was eating was high, and I was enjoying 12-14 or so ounces of meat a day instead of the 8-10. I stayed in ketosis, but my calories per day were edging up toward 1200, which as I’ve said before, is my “maintaining” calorie count. And I must admit my veggie intake went down a bit.

I had THE appointment with my heart surgeon on the 24th, and he said “let’s do it”. I will be making the actual scheduling in the coming week, and it will be sometime in October. This is because I have lots and lots of travel plans for the summer I refuse to miss out on.

What got me back on track with the diet was going to lunch AND dinner the day of the appointment - spent the day with my hubby. I ate BREAD at lunch… I make no excuses. I was doing a little panicking about the surgery, everything the doc told me would happen - it is open heart surgery after all…And I had some comfort food. All well and good, it wasn’t that much. Dinner … ugh!

Let me back up and say that again, my veggie intake had gone down… I wasn’t getting enough fiber lately, if you get my drift… Then I ate a HUGE dinner, and ate things I know threw me out of ketosis and I stuffed myself. I have not over eaten since starting this diet 4 months ago. Honestly, I have reasons it happened… I was totally starving by the time we got to the restaurant, it was a ‘grill your own meat’ thing and my hubby kept making me these really awesome little steakettes…. I ate potatoes… I went way off diet.

And I PAID for it! Gas cramps by the time I’m getting ready for bed, so sleep sucked all night. And then up in the morning with dry heaves. Oh yeah, I was in bad shape, at first thinking I got food poisoning. Nope, just too much food! And then ALL DAY the next day I felt like I’d been hit by a truck! I felt heavy and lethargic and just downright gross… And I know that’s from the carbs. And now, a day later, I have rib aches from the dry heaves. Oh yeah, so much fun.

See, I maintain I don’t feel guilt about eating off diet. But when I feel like this, I think, I KNOW, it was so not worth it! It was one day, but it got me back in the right frame of mind. 2 days now, I’m TOTALLY 100% back on IP plan, and I will stay there for the next 30 days until my brother’s wedding. That day all bets are off!

As of today, exactly 4 months on plan, I weigh 245 lbs. That’s a total loss of 37 lbs so far. I’m hoping to be down to 235 by the wedding.

My goal is to be down to 220 by the surgery (6 months from now) and I set the easy goal of only 25 lbs from now because this IS a summer of travel, and though I “plan” to stay OP, I am not 100% sure I can maintain it constantly. I’d like to be down to 200, but as long as I make 220, I will feel good. This is just reality in my mind. I learned my lesson on spring break. I know I can maintain while traveling, since I did that on spring break and was around really bad food. At least the traveling I will be doing this summer is to visit relatives, and they’ve all been WARNED not to get weird about my strange eating habits, and to not take any offence to me supplying most of my own food. Everyone I’m related to COOKS, but most of it isn’t stuff I should be eating…probably ever, let alone while trying to lose weight. I am SO going to miss my Aunt Millie’s pies!!!

On the way out the door for a Valentine’s Brunch with my Romance Writer’s group. 20 lbs gone… I’m liking how I’m lookin’! You can see the previous pictures on the Picture page. Click the Tabby ^^^ up top called Pictures.